March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. and a Motorola Mobility
Holdings Inc. unit were ordered by the U.S. judge presiding over
an Apple Inc. patent lawsuit to turn over information about the
development of Google’s Android operating system.

The Motorola Mobility unit and Google must also hand over
to Apple information about Google’s pending $12.5 billion
acquisition of the mobile-phone maker, U.S. Circuit Judge
Richard A. Posner in Chicago ruled yesterday.

Posner’s decision came in a patent lawsuit filed in 2010 by
Cupertino, California-based Apple against Motorola Mobility,
which has countersued.

“The Android/Motorola acquisition discovery is highly
relevant to Apple’s claims and defenses,” Apple’s attorneys’
said in a March 2 filing requesting the judge’s order.

Apple, maker of the iPhone, has been waging a global fight
with the former Motorola Inc. unit that sells phones using
Google Inc.’s Android operating system.

Posner, a federal appeals court judge who is presiding over
the trial court-level case, has scheduled back-to-back trials
before separate juries starting June 11. The first will address
six Apple patents, and the second will cover three Motorola
patents.

“Motorola shall be expected to obtain full and immediate
compliance by Google with Apple’s liability discovery demands,”
the judge said in a February order.

Motorola’s Opposition

Motorola Mobility opposed Apple’s request, arguing that
Google, the operator of the world’s most-visited Internet search
portal, isn’t a party to the lawsuit.

“Google’s employees and documents are not within the
‘possession, custody, or control’ of Motorola, and Motorola
cannot force Google to produce documents or witnesses over
Google’s objections,” lawyers for the mobile phone maker said
in a court filing earlier yesterday.

Motorola Mobility was spun off from Motorola Inc. -- now
Motorola Solutions Inc. Jennifer Erickson, a spokeswoman for the
Libertyville, Illinois-based company, declined to comment on the
ruling.

Niki Fenwick, a spokeswoman at Google, said in an e-mail
that the company wouldn’t comment beyond what was submitted in
court papers.

The case is Apple Inc. v. Motorola Inc., 11-cv-08540, U.S.
District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).